Viruses can cause human or animal diseases. The inability to effectively inactivate pathogenic viruses without adversely affecting their antigenic properties has made it difficult to make safe, effective vaccines for viral diseases. In addition, the presence of viruses can destroy the utility of valuable food and industrial products.
Heat treatments, the extraction of virus with solvents and detergents, and the treatment with high doses of gamma radiation can be effective means of inactivating viruses. However, those procedures are rigorous and nonspecific and their applicability is limited. As a result, there is a need for a simple, effective method for inactivating viruses.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,625, by Dr. F. Sieber, it is disclosed that a merocyanine dye MC540 and the novel merocyanine dyes of the instant invention, which were received by Dr. Sieber from the present inventor, are useful as agents which preferentially bind to the lipids in enveloped viruses or virus-infected cells and which do not or bind only minimally to the other components of the cells to inactivate the viruses and virus-infected cells. The MC540 dye and its use in eliminating tumor cells from bone marrow grafts is described in "Elimination of Residual Tumor Cells from Autologous Bone Marrow Grafts by Dye-Mediated Photolysis: Preclinical Data", by Dr. Fritz Sieber in Photochemistry and Photobiology, Vol. 46, No. 1, pages 71-76, (1987).
There is a need for effective compounds suitable for use with photosensitization for inactivating viruses and for removing tumor cells.